When a friend offered up a cabin in Rhode Island in the summer of 2020, Sarah MacLean jumped at the opportunity. MacLean, who grew up in Rhode Island, relished the idea of being mere seconds from the beach. What she didn’t expect to find was the inspiration for her new novel, These Summer Storms (Ballantine, July 8).

“Rhode Island was the place I escaped when I was a kid,” MacLean says. “But your home always calls you back. I became obsessed with these islands all through the bay, some of which were private. I was interested in who would live there. Simultaneously, I was thinking about my father’s death in 2017. When somebody who’s a big force in a family dies, the whole structure of the family shifts. Storms was a way for me to escape, and once the family came to me, there was no going back. I knew this story had to be contemporary, about a modern family living through a universal experience.”

The “contemporary” part is notable, given that MacLean built her career writing historical fiction such as the Bareknuckle Bastards series. Her steamy romances routinely hit the bestseller lists, but These Summer Storms is her first foray into the contemporary world.

The book follows Alice Storm as she reluctantly returns home to her family’s private island off the Rhode Island coast after her billionaire father’s death. Alice was banished for daring to ignore her father’s wishes, and she hasn’t been home in five years. Now, she’s back with her mother and three siblings who regard her with either suspicion or outright disdain. Her father left them one last challenge if they want to earn their inheritances, and while everyone has their own task to complete, Alice’s feels almost impossible: She has to stay on the island with her family for the entire week. Further complicating things, on her first night in town she sleeps with her father’s employee, Jack, who’s in charge of enforcing the rules. While Alice couldn’t care less about the money, the rules stipulate that if any member of the family fails to complete their task, no one will receive their inheritance. There’s plenty of drama, sex, and rich people behaving badly, which makes for a great summer read.

“My goal is always to write characters who are extraordinary, and not necessarily in a good way,” MacLean says. “As readers, that’s what we want. We want to be outside of ourselves, living somebody else’s life.”

MacLean recently spoke with Kirkus via Zoom. Our conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

What do you look for in a summer read, and does These Summer Storms deliver it?

We give ourselves a lot of freedom to read in summer. I mean, I feel like I have freedom to read anything year-round, which may be particular to the fact that I’m a genre writer. I think a lot of people who don’t read genre fiction year-round give themselves permission in the summer to take a little break and read a book that’s just a flat-out banger. For me, summer reads feel exciting and salacious and juicy. I want These Summer Storms to keep you up until all hours, or at least keep you busy on the beach.

I assume with your historical romances you have to do a lot of research. How was your process different when writing a contemporary book?

With These Summer Storms, I did have to do research—like, I had to understand how trusts work. In romance, you can sort of wave away some of this stuff, but I had to sit down and really think through, How would this trust work in a real way? How can I make sure that the events of this book are legal? I didn’t think writing this book would be much different than writing my previous books. You write 19 books and you think, How hard could it be? But I called my agent and said, “I have a problem. I’m pretty sure I’m not writing a romance novel.” It took me a long time to learn how to use a different muscle. It was a really exciting experience to write something out of my comfort zone, but it continues to be very scary. What will people think?

Well, Kirkus gave it a star, if that’s any indication! So where would you place this, in terms of genre?

I’ve heard commercial fiction, book club fiction, beach read…but the truth is, I’m Sarah MacLean, and I’m never going to not write a romance in a book. There’s a really strong romance that runs directly through the center of this story, but the book could exist without it in the hands of a different author. This is really a story about the dysfunction and chaos of a family in grief, and the fact that there is a sexy lieutenant managing the inheritance game and causing even morechaos is just a bonus. Hopefully, people who love a beach read will read it and say, “Oh, this is great. I want to read more romance.” I just want to be a gateway drug for romance. Come on in, everyone. The water’s fine.

Most of the book is from Alice’s point of view. What drew you to her as a character?

I really love a character in exile, someone who is pushed out of a community and forced into action. All my heroines have that in common. Alice understands the rules of this game and has an immense amount of privilege by virtue of how she was raised, but she chose exile because she’s made decisions that go against her family’s cardinal rule: family first. You don’t need to have a billionaire parent to understand the way that families push buttons and push people out of the fold. Alice is the protagonist because she plays an interesting role for the reader, in that she is the most normal of the siblings. They’re all children of a billionaire, so none of them are normal, but she’s the closest thing to a “stranger coming to town.”

What do you hope readers get out of the book?

I hope they have a really great time. That’s all I want. The world is very difficult right now. There’s a lot going on, and we have to cling to joy wherever we can find it. I hope this book gives people a lot of joy, and I hope they have fun reading it. Books should be fun.

What are you looking forward to reading this summer?

I’ve already read it, but I am so excited about Renée Ahdieh’s Park Avenue, which is coming out in June [see the review on p. TK]. It’s also about a dysfunctional, wealthy family. Nana Malone has one out called Gold Coast Dilemma. It’s about a Ghanaian American woman who struggles with her wealthy family and the idea of having to live a very particular kind of life. I’m very excited about Alice Murphy’s A Showgirl’s Rules for Falling in Love, which is a historical, and Alexis Daria has a new book coming out called Along Came Amor, which is the end of a series that will give you a lot of joy. Mia Sosa’s next book is When Javi Dumped Mari, and I think she is the best rom-com writer out there. And Joanna Lowell is coming out with A Rare Find—her books are so bright, sparkly, and delightful. Any one of these will make an absolute banger of a summer read. Take them all to the beach!

Kerry Winfrey is the author of Waiting for Tom Hanks and other titles.